• The Power To Choose

• Joshua 24:15 (NKJV)

  And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Today it seems that rather than seeing our decisions and life choices as choices, society sees them as uncontrollable circumstances to which we fall victim.  Possibly our greatest God-given ability is the ability to choose.  Mankind has always tried to deny his personal responsibility to choose because the ability to choose comes with the personal responsibility for the results of that decision.  When Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain with the Law of God, Aaron and the congregation made a golden calf that they could worship.  When Moses confronted Aaron about his decision Aaron said the calf just jumped out of the fire!  Amazing!  

It is interesting to observe the wording in Joshua's challenge to Israel.  He talked about their choices before them.  Would they choose to serve the gods of their fathers on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites.  Would they choose the comfort of the false gods of their fathers?  They were familiar with the past it represented their heritage.  Would they choose the gods of the Amorites which represented the current, the contemporary "in vogue" god of the now.   The decision to serve the True and Living God must be a current living decision.  To compare to our day we could ask, "will you choose to serve where God once was moving and working?  Will we choose the god of doctrines of reason.  The things that seem right to the intellect?  It makes sense to move away from the old outdated verses that have been preached and taught for over 2,000 years.  The battle cry of the new generation of "the enlightened" is "Would a loving God...?"  Many of the things that are today being dictated by our culture and even the highest court in the land just makes sense.  Yet faith requires obedience the His Word.  There are lines we dare not cross for any reason and especially to appease people.  As in Joshua's day we, the people of God have difficult and costly decisions to make.  May God give us courage and steadfastness to choose rightly and declare, "we will serve the Lord!"